Dangerous Rivals
by Dream Keeper
Summary: Well, Naya is trained from a yound age to kill Kusanagi and the Kushinada. But then she finds the children she's been protecting are Kusanagi's kids. Will she still be able to follow Murokumo's instructions to kill them?
1. Murakumo's Daughter?!

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Dream Maker: Well, I do not own Blue Seed. *sniffs* I wish I did but I don't. The blue seed boys and girls all belong to their respectable owners. I am only borrowing them for this twisted fic and promise to return them, only slightly worse for the wear, when I'm through with them. Anything else?  
  
Christa: We would like to thank Sandra a.k.a. Wufei lover for the name Naya. We were just a bit stumped for a while. And this is our first fic so please be lenient with the flames.. We have only see 8 of the 26 episodes..  
  
Dream Maker: We wouldn't be writing this if a certain muse would stop being so active long enough for me to finish one darn fic I start!  
  
Christa: Moan and complain, moan and complain.  
  
Dream Maker: *borrows Koume's big gun* that's all you're going to be able to do when I get through with you!  
  
Christa: EEP! *runs away as quickly as her little mouse legs can carry her*  
  
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Everything started out as a normal day for Naya. Murakumo had worked with her on her training before leaving her on her own like usual. She wandered around the ruined place of old, looking for odds and ends that were not entirely trashed, but since she had been doing that all her life, found none.  
  
As usual, she ended up wishing to go into Japan to experience the pleasure of the sun on her skin again, but she knew that would be impossible unless Murakumo told her to. She had to obey her master no matter what. He'd raised her after all.  
  
"Naya, get over here."  
  
"Yes Murakumo." She answered as she got up, even though she's rather just have lain on the rock she'd been occupying. "What is it you need?" She asked as she approached him through the considerable gloom of the underground.  
  
"You've been training all of your life to carry out once mission. Do you know what that is?" he quizzed, not for the fist time that day.  
  
"Yes Murakumo. I must kill the imperfect soul Kusanagi and kill off the Kushinadas as well, to ensure that the Aragami will one day be able to reclaim their hold on the land above." she recited from memory.  
  
"Good. Now, I judge that you are finally ready. I will get you a suitable place to stay in the," he paused for a second to make his face into a mask of distaste, "human realm. Now, you know how to judge an imperfect soul from once as perfect as myself. Kill them if you find them."  
  
"Yes Murakumo." Naya answered steadily as he left. At last she would be able to avenge her master. Now was the perfect time to strike, when the humans were getting too settled in their world without Aragami. At last she would be able to walk in the sunlight without having to trail after someone. {Maybe I'll finally be able to prove myself worthy of being his student.} she fantasized, then rolled her eyes at herself. {Oh, yeah. That'll be the day. The day he gives up his powers to become an imperfect soul is the day he accepts me as his protegee.} She sighed as she lay back down on her rock. {He may be a slave driver but he's still my father. I should want to become his equal, right?}  
  
When Murakumo returned hours later he had a bag in his hand. "Take this Naya. You will need clothes that are not as filthy as the ones you wear now. Bath in the stream and come to me when you are ready."  
  
"Yes Murakumo." She replied automatically as she went off to do as he wished her to. Ten minutes later she presented herself to him, looking every bit like the young innocent women that she needed to seem like.  
  
"Follow me." he said, and with that, Murakumo took flight and she followed a respectable distance behind him. In no time they were in Izumo and in front of an apartment building.  
  
"You will be staying here for the time being. You know how to fend for yourself, so don't come back until you have completed your mission. And no matter what they may say to you, don't forget where your loyalties lie Naya. It would be a shame to kill you with the rest of the imperfect souls."  
  
"Yes Master Murakumo. Good day." She said as he disappeared and she turned and walked into the apartment building. Not long after, she was dressed in jeans and a shirt, instead of a dress and headed out into the world. She had to make sure that Shen and Aiko were all right. It wouldn't do for Kusanagi to sacrifice them if he found out the Aragami were not as gone as they believed.  
  
"Aiko, stop pinching me! Ouch! Stop it! Mommy!" Shen cried as his sister turned from tickling him to pinching him gently.  
  
"Be quiet you crybaby!" Aiko said, afraid to be reprimanded by her mother. Naya watched the two of them carefully. They had been her assignment for nine years. Since Murakumo had judged her old enough for an assignment at the age of six, she had been guarding them from the time they were still in the crib. Most of the time they were blissfully unaware of her, but sometimes there were those rare occasions when one of them would see her.  
  
"Mommy!" Shen shouted again.  
  
"Mommy won't be him for another hour Shen." Aiko said, softening a little towards her brother. "And daddy's with mommy."  
  
"What about me?" Naya asked as she dropped out of the tree she's been sitting in. Both of them jumped at her "sudden" arrival but they both beamed at her.  
  
"Naya!" they cried in unison, running towards her. They played together for a while before she took them inside to take a nap. She was just lying a blanket over them when the front door squeaked as someone came in.  
  
"Who the heck are you?!" someone yelled from the doorway. Naya's head jerked up to look strait into the catlike eyes of Kusanagi. Quickly she dropped the blanket and made a headlong dash for the back door. But before she got there Kusanagi was in front of her. She ended up barreling right into him, through the glass door, and out onto the soft grass of the large backyard.  
  
Kusanagi recovered first and lunged at her, trying to get a hold on her. Knowing she had no other choice, Naya took flight and shot up into the air.  
  
"What are you? Another Aragami?!" he shouted in surprise.  
  
"And if I am?"  
  
"Then I'm gunna have to kill you."  
  
"So be it you imperfect soul."  
  
Kusanagi froze for a moment. "Imperfect soul? But I killed Murakumo. His daughter? It can't be!" That moment was his undoing. Naya sped down towards him, using her matama's to deploy the blades in her arm.  
  
"What? Shoot!" Kusanagi cursed as he tried to dive out of the way, but he was already too late. Naya wrapped her arm around his throat and started to press the blade into it, seeking blood. She rose up into the air and dangled him a few feet off the ground, absolutely helpless as he struggled feebly against her.  
  
"KUSANAGI!" Princess Kushinada screamed from the doorway to the house.  
  
"Now you will watch your precious Kusanagi die by my hand for all that this imperfect soul has done to the Aragami, Princess." She sneered.  
  
"Daddy!" Shen cried from the door when he saw what Naya was doing.  
  
"Daddy?" Naya echoed, absolutely shocked. She looked into the pleading eyes of the child she'd been protecting for seven years and lost her will for a moment. She lowered herself a bit and let Kusanagi go. He dropped to the ground win an undignified heap. "Be thankful Kusanagi. You were lucky this time."  
  
"Who the hell are you!?" Kusanagi screamed from the ground as Princess Kushinada and the children ran to him. Naya just glared and shook her head before she flew off.  
  
~*~  
  
Later that night she came back to the house, careful not to be seen, and sat in a tree outside the children's window. She'd had a great deal of shock today. She'd only seen Kusanagi here once or twice while she was watching over the Kushinadas. She'd thought he was only a friend of the family's.  
  
{How can he be their father? I must have been here close to a whole day sometimes and I've never heard.. But then again, I've never really listened have I? I've always been thinking of something or another. Murakumo must have made sure I'd find out like this. It must be some kind of test. He probably made sure that I never heard the kids call him "daddy."} She smiled wryly in spite of herself. {Hmm.. But how to you kill the father without hurting the children?} She'd been here to hold them when the grandmother died, and the great grandmother. But the father? How could she face them again?  
  
{I must kill them anyway, so he'd be the best place to start. No, the TAC is still alive. They should be taken care of first. You'll have to wait Kusanagi.} "I'll get you, and it will be when you least expect it." She whispered as she left to finally start her mission.  
  
***  
  
"I'll get you Kusanagi, and it will be when you lest expect it."  
  
Kusanagi awoke out of his dreams to hear something rustling in the tree outside, but he was only awake enough to see someone remove themself from the tree.  
  
{Was it that girl again? I know the splitting of the bloodline could awaken the Aragami, but the children weren't twins.} The thought made his blood turn cold and he turned over to look at Momiji's face on the pillow beside him. {How much longer will they be safe?}  
  
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Christa: Night!  
  
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	2. Protector or Assasin?

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Dream Maker: Okay, you know the drill. *clears throat* I do not own Blue Seed. *sniffs* I wish I did but I don't. The blue seed boys and girls all belong to their respectable owners. I am only borrowing them for this twisted fic and promise to return them, only slightly worse for the wear, when I'm through with them.  
  
Christa: Okay, well, just to let you know, all thoughts will be inside {}'s because it got too hard to try to do it the other way when there is no way to have italics.  
  
Dream Maker: Okay, here's the next chapter!  
  
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Naya stood at her apartment window looking out at the scenery stretching out before her. It was another beautiful day and it looked like it'd be a warm one.  
  
{How can he be their father? Did Murakumo not tell me because he wanted to test me? Or did he just not know? No, a soul as perfect as him would know. There's no way he couldn't have. But still, I have to wonder how I'm suppose to kill him without hurting the children. The TAC are much too easy to get out of the picture. Koume, Mr. Kunakita, and Ryoko are already taken care of. I should have the rest gone by sunrise tomorrow. Ah, but then again, I also have to take care of Sakura. She will be a thorn in my side until she _is_ dealt with if she gets wind of a new Aragami.}  
  
Naya sighed as she turned away from the window and flopped down on the couch. "If only I knew what to do. Murakumo taught me not to doubt my mission. I will have to kill the children anyway, no?" But the very thought of causing them harm made a cold lump form in her stomach. "So why am I starting to doubt myself now?"  
  
"Naya!"  
  
"Murakumo!" Naya yelped as she sat up. She mentally cursed herself for being caught unaware by him yet again. One of these days she would make sure that he no longer snuck up on her.  
  
"Why haven't you completed your mission yet?" Murakumo snapped.  
  
"I am taking care of the TAC first Master Murakumo. I thought it would be wise to take care of the weakest prey first, then move onto the bigger game."  
  
"Huh, you think they're going to get in the way do you?" he scoffed at her. "You're just stalling because you've been left to your own devices for a whole three days. You're not sure what to do without me guiding you are you?" he sneered at her. "I guess I was wrong about you. You are just as imperfect a soul as that Kusanagi."  
  
Cold hatred bloomed in Naya's heart and she wanted to strike him down with all her being, but she kept her temper under tight rein, forcing herself to remember that he was much too powerful for her. "I'm sorry Murakumo. Please forgive me."  
  
"Forgive you? Forgiveness comes from the merciful. I will not forgive you, but I will not kill you either. I will give you one more chance Naya. I want you to bring me the imperfect souls heart within three days. And all the Kushinada's within three days of his. If not, I will be forced to kill you. Remember Naya, I can find you anywhere. You wont be able to hide from me if you fail to complete your mission."  
  
"Yes Murakumo. I understand."  
  
"Good. Now, a little reminder I think." He said as he raised his hand and a stream of electricity shot out from the matama and wrapped her in its iron jaws. Naya writhered in agony as it gripped her, making her wish only for death. Death had to be better than the pain. Yet somehow, Murakumo's voice floated through the pain induced fog surrounding her brain saying, "You know that you need only to scream to make the pain go away. I will not tolerate insubordinations Naya."  
  
{I must not give him the pleasure. I must not. But it hurts. I have only to give in. Oh how I'd like to do that so much.} The pain increased one- hundred-fold until she could stand it no longer and a blood-curdling scream of agony tore itself from her throat. Immediately the electricity vanished, and without it to hold her suspended in the air, she dropped to the ground like a bag of discarded stones.  
  
"So glad you did that. I was beginning to think you'd fainted. Now remember what I said. Three days Naya. The clock starts now." And with that Murakumo was gone.  
  
Naya stayed panting on the floor for a few minutes, wallowing in self-pity before she dragged herself off the ground and changed out of her now charred clothes. {He's right. I am stalling. I should kill the imperfect soul tonight. I must get to the Kushinada's house after I take care of the rest of the TAC. They'll still be in one place right now.} When she was redressed, she opened her bedroom window and leaped out into the sunshine.  
  
***  
  
"Aiko, what do you know about that girl?" Kusanagi demanded for the hundredth time that night. Again Aiko kept her mouth shut. "Darn it Aiko, why won't you listen to me? She's dangerous and she needs to be taken care of! If she isn't she will try to kill you and Shen!" He threw his hands up in a gesture of defeat and started to walk away.  
  
"She would never hurt me! I've known her all my life! She's nice and she's always been nice to me and Shen! She's not mean like you! She didn't try to hurt you for no reason!" Aiko yelled at his father before she got off the couch and sprinted up the stairs to lock herself in her room.  
  
"Aiko wait! Come back here!" Kusanagi yelled after his daughter desperately. Upon hearing her door slam he gave up and turned back to sit down on the couch. Momiji came up behind him and started rubbing his shoulders.  
  
"Kusanagi, I think that this girl is their protector, just like you were Kaede's, and mine after hers."  
  
"Then why in the world would she attack me? And why would she try to kill me?"  
  
"You did threaten her life first Kusanagi. I will admit I was scared, but you didn't see the look on her face when Shen called you daddy. It was like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on her."  
  
Kusanagi sighed. "I think I'd better go talk to Aiko."  
  
"Yes, I think you'd better." Momiji agreed.  
  
Kusanagi walked up the stairs and down the hall to his daughter's room. Shen was already mad at him and wouldn't talk to him. He tapped softly on the door but received no answer. He knocked again, a little louder this time, but again his daughter didn't answer. So Kusanagi opened the door and flipped on the light in the dark room. He looked around but his daughter was no where to be seen. "Aiko?" he called, but no reply came. He knew he wouldn't get one when he spotted the sheets hanging out the window.  
  
{No, she can't have run away! Doesn't she know how dangerous that it?! Oh no, this is all my fault.} Then Kusanagi froze when he senced two Aragami not far from the house. {That girl! If she harms one hair on Aiko's head I'll tear her limb from limb!} He leaped from the open window and went as quickly towards the Aragami as he could.  
  
***  
  
{What in the world is Aiko doing?} Naya wondered as she watched her climb down her "ladder." {What happened to her that would make her run away? Oh well, I'd better follow her. It wouldn't do for her to get killed and have us all sent back to the. other world.} She shuddered at the thought. She was enjoying the light.  
  
She followed Aiko for a good five minutes before she stopped in a field to rest after running. She was just getting up again to continue when some sort of Lizard-like Aragami waddled out of the forest at the edge of the field. Aiko froze and so did Naya. That is, until the Aragami looked straight at Aiko and smiled.  
  
"A Kushinada. Perfect, I can kill you myself!" It hissed as it started towards her.  
  
"Aiko RUN!" Naya screamed as she deployed the blades from her arms and jumped down from the tree she was in to meet the thing halfway to Aiko. "You'll never get to her you lowlife Aragami scum!" Naya screamed as she charged him. The beast only laughed at her.  
  
"You think you can defeat me? You are mistaken little pest." It laughed again before it took a deep breath and when it exhaled its breath came out almost like fog. But the fog held something deadly and Naya knew it. She jumped out of the way just in time to evade it, and was glad she did because the fog quickly condensed into ice crystals that all shot straight at where she'd been.  
  
"Holy smokes! Be careful Naya!" Aiko yelled to her. It only distracted her.  
  
"Aiko, I said run! Now do what I tell you!" She chanced a glance back toward where she was. "Darn you! Are you an idiot? Run! NOW!" She was forced to turn her attention back to the task at hand so she didn't know whether Aiko obeyed or not.  
  
"Ha, ha, ha. You were lucky to evade that attack little pest. You won't be so lucky this time!" It laughed as it breathed out the fog again. Naya had to fly this time to get out of the way so the beast was wrong, but not by much.  
  
{What the heck am I going to do? I can't keep this up forever, but I don't want to kill it in front of Aiko. She's still much too young to know the true meaning of death and evil. What? Why am I thinking like this? I know I'll have to become evil itself and kill her within the week. Why am I feeling this way when I think about killing her? Ak!} She dove quickly out of the way of another icy attack. {That was close. If he keeps this up I'm going to be killed. Murakumo would be most displeased if he had to raise me again for another fifteen years or so.} She shot a bolt of hot energy at it and was rewarded with a sizzling sound and the smell of scorched flesh.  
  
"So, you want to play games do you little pest?" it roared at her. "I will play your game! Your Kushinada will die!"  
  
"You can't kill him! He may be the one to lock us all back into the darkness!!" She screamed, playing her only card to keep him alive.  
  
It only laughed at her. "I think not little pest!" It exhaled quickly and the fog condensed into more ice crystals, but instead of shooting at her, they headed straight for Aiko, who was frozen in place from shock.  
  
"RUN!!!!!"  
  
***  
  
Kusanagi followed his ears to the place where the fight was going on. He was surprised to see the young woman fighting some sort of Lizard-like Aragami. But his surprise turned to fear when he saw that the Aragami was aiming its attack at his son. He acted as quickly as he could.  
  
"RUN!!!!!!" the woman yelled at him as the dove in front of the attack to, hopefully, save his life. Kusanagi leaped down from the tree, snatched his son up, and got away from the clearing.  
  
"Naya!! NAYA!!!" Aiko screamed as she saw the crystals tear into her body. She fell limp and bleeding on the ground.  
  
"Get him away from here Kusanagi." Naya managed to choke out before she stilled completely.  
  
"KUSANAGI!" Momiji screamed from somewhere just inside the tree line.  
  
"Momiji! Take Aiko and run!" He said as forcefully as he could when he got to her. He handed his screaming child over as gently as he could before he took off again. Her pitiful screams of, "Naya!" followed by sobs followed him through the darkness.  
  
{So her name's Naya. Why in the world would she give her life for him? Was Momiji right? Was she really sent here to protect them?} Kusanagi wondered as he charged into battle. He deployed the blades from his arms and leaped straight at the beast, turning aside when he remembered the crystals. Instead, he changed tactics and came at it from behind.  
  
"You'll pay for what you've done!" he yelled as his blades searched for and found the living flesh just behind the monsters head. Blood oozed from the two wounds as he quickly freed his blades and cut downwards and across. Is blades met bone, which resisted for a moment, before they cut through entirely, coming out the other side of the creatures neck.  
  
The lizard fell to the ground and lay there twitching for a moment before it was completely still. Kusanagi quickly found the matama and destroyed it. He was just about to turn and go home when he heard a small groan emitted from what he thought was a lifeless body.  
  
{Huh? She's still alive after all that? Not even I could have lived.} He walked over to her and knelt down beside her. Feeling her pulse he found it was weak and growing weaker by the second. {She's dying. Do I dare?}  
  
"Please Kusanagi. Take care of the Kushinada. Do _not_ sacrifice them. They're much too precious." Naya said as her voice trailed away with every syllable.  
  
{I have no choice. I need the information she has. I have to save her. No!} Naya's breathing stilled entirely. Kusanagi hesitated for a moment. {If I revive her, will she be even more bent on killing me?} He shook his head at himself. {That's a chance I'll just have to take.} He thought before he started CPR.  
  
She started breathing again weakly on his third try and he was able to breath a tiny sigh of relief. But she wasn't out of the woods just yet. She was still bleeding from the numerous wounds the Aragami had inflicted upon her.  
  
{I haven't used my powers in such a long time. I'm afraid I'll kill her if I try. But its either that or let her bleed to death. I guess that there's really no choice in the matter.} He stood up, managing only to wince at the pain he was feeling from not moving as fast as he had been for a long time.  
  
He stood over her for a moment before he raised his hands and a green light descended from the matama's on his hands to Naya. Slowly, very slowly the wounds from ice shards started to heal, and at the same time the ice shards that were still in her body started to melt. Five or ten minutes later Kusanagi stopped and wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his coat. Naya's wounds were all scabbed over or half healed.  
  
{Well, I guess I should take her home before Momiji starts to worry that she killed me. Phew! I think I'm going to sleep for a week. That was more tiring than I thought it would be. I'm _really_ drained.} He thought as he bent down and picked her up. Heading back towards his house a million questions ran through his head, but for the moment, he hadn't any answers.  
  
***  
  
Murakumo frowned as he looked into his scrying bowl. {That Aragami came much too close to killing the Kushinada than I am comfortable with. It looks like I'm going to have to take more precautions than I thought. Oh well, at least some good came out of tonight. Naya is in a perfect position to kill them all. One by one. It will be so sweet to watch through her eyes as she looks into the faces that know who their killer is.} He chuckled at the thought.  
  
{I must wonder though. What is Kusanagi up to?} Murakumo wandered off into the dark underground of his lair to think more on the matter.  
  
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Dream Maker: How d'ya like?  
  
Christa: Is it any good? Hope it is!  
  
Dream Maker: Okay, I apologize again. I've only seen 8 episodes of Blue Seed so I really don't know what powers Kusanagi has. And I really don't know if he killed Murakumo or not, so I'm probably warping a few things to fit my story.  
  
Christa: *sweatdrop* A _few_?  
  
Dream Maker: Shut. Up. Okay, well, gotta post the fic! Please R&R. That means read AND REVIEW!  
  
Christa: Bye!  
  
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	3. New Feelings

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Dream Keeper: Okay, you know the drill. *clears throat* I do not own Blue Seed. *sniffs* I wish I did but I don't. The blue seed boys and girls all belong to their respectable owners. I am only borrowing them for this twisted fic and promise to return them, only slightly worse for the wear, when I'm through with them.  
  
Christa: With that said, this chapter may get a bit confusing.. We haven't exactly figured it out yet ourselves..  
  
Dream Keeper: You mean _you_ haven't!  
  
Christa: *sticks her tongue out at Dream Keeper* Your point?  
  
Dream Keeper: *sweadrop* Okay, just ignore her please. Anyway, lets get on with the fic!  
  
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Naya woke to the sweet sounds of birds chirping somewhere nearby. {Huh? What happened? Where am I?} Naya thought as she cracked open one eye to look around. She saw immediately that she wasn't at the apartment or the underground as she'd expected, but somewhere totally foreign and yet familiar to her. She sat up slowly and looked around to get her bearings.  
  
{Hey isn't this. Yes, this is the Kushinada's house!} Her eyes widened with the realization and she flopped back down on the bed. {How did I get here?} She searched her memory for the answer, but the last thing she remembered what saying something to. Kusanagi. {That's it. He must have brought me here.}  
  
She waited for the familiar hatred of the man to flood her systems, but she felt nothing but gratefulness at his kindness towards her. {What? What is wrong with me? I hate him! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him! He nearly killed Murakumo and I'm feeling GREATFUL!?} Familiar self-loathing filled her being.  
  
{I'm not worthy of even thinking about Murakumo if this is the way I feel. I have to kill him! I have to!} she screamed at herself in her mind, but her heart told her differently. It was like it was whispering, "Its okay! Disobey Murakumo! He's not your master! You're not his slave!"  
  
"So, you're awake huh?" Someone taunted from the door. Her head snapped towards the sound and she found herself looking directly into the eyes of Kusanagi. "I was wondering if you'd ever wake up. You've been sleeping like the dead." He chuckled a little. Naya just stared at him. She couldn't seem to grasp the fact that he wasn't being hostile to her. Quite opposite in fact.  
  
"How long have I been asleep?" Naya asked carefully as she raised her head off the pillow.  
  
"Huh? Oh, about three days. You were in pretty bad shape for a while. Weren't sure if you were going to make it."  
  
Naya groaned and let her head fall back, closing her eyes. "You should have let me die," she muttered. "Just kill me now and rectify your mistake."  
  
"What? Are you crazy?!" Kusanagi yelled as she lay wallowing in self pity. "I saved your life. Don't throw that gift away!"  
  
"You wouldn't understand." Naya muttered. Her throat tightened and she tried to swallow the lump that seemed to have made its home there.  
  
"And just why wouldn't I?"  
  
{Should I tell him? Well, there's no point in lying about it now. Its not like I can pay any higher a price for my mistakes.} "I failed my master." She managed to whisper.  
  
"Murakumo?" Kusanagi asked quietly. Naya nodded. "What mission did you fail?"  
  
"I failed to kill you."  
  
***  
  
Kusanagi stared at the young woman who lay on the bed before him. He remembered the woman who'd fought the Aragami almost to her death in an effort to protect Aiko. The woman who lay before him was not the same person she'd been. She looked childish and vulnerable. And what he'd originally thought was self pity was beginning to show itself as complete and total fear.  
  
"You failed to kill me?" he echoed. {I need to find out why. Should I press the advantage while she's like this or should I wait?}  
  
"I know you're brimming with questions. Ask them. I'm your prisoner after all."  
  
"What?!" his head jerked up as he looked towards her. "Prisoner? What makes you think that?"  
  
"Why else would you want me? I'm no good for a ransom. Murakumo wouldn't care."  
  
"Look kid, err, Naya, you're not our prisoner. If anything you're a guest. I owe you Aiko's life."  
  
"She's the Kushinada. The Aragami was going to kill her without putting the ceramic field around her and I didn't want to get sent back to the underworld. That's all." Naya said offhandedly. Kusanagi gritted his teeth. {Oh how I'd live to slap that girl. But I think getting my hands around her neck and slowly wringing the life out of-whoa! Hold that thought! She saved Aiko's life. I shouldn't be thinking things like that!}  
  
"Naya!" two voices shouted in unison. "You're awake!"  
  
"Shen, Aiko, didn't I tell you to leave her alone?" Kusanagi scolded but his children ignored him and ran strait to Naya's bedside.  
  
"We were so worried about you Naya!" Shen exclaimed.  
  
"Thank you so much for saving my life." Aiko said quietly. Naya looked at them sadly, saying nothing, and rolled over to where her back faced them.  
  
{Why that no good little snob!} Kusanagi thought. He hated the hurt look he saw on the kid's faces. But he immediately realized that children are not deterred so easily. They both moved to the other side of the bed.  
  
"Here you go Naya. Mommy said we could pick this for you." Aiko smiled as she held the prized yellow rose out towards her.  
  
Kusanagi knew that Naya's icy attitude melted the moment that she smiled and sat up, patting the bed beside her. Neither child wasted any time climbing up to sit next to her. Naya took the rose from Aiko and sniffed it.  
  
"That smells wonderful Aiko, thank you, and you too Shen." She said as she set it aside on the table next to the bed. Then, without warning, she enveloped them in a hug.  
  
{Huh, Aiko wasn't lying. She wouldn't hurt them. I don't think she could if her life depended on it.} Kusanagi smiled in spite of himself, but his smile faltered and his expression changed from wry humor to shock when he heard Naya sniff. He looked over at her and saw silent tears gliding down her cheeks. {What in the world? I never thought she'd.. but then again, she's no longer the faceless monster I thought she was. She's human alright.} When she let go of Aiko and Shen she put her hand to her cheek and it came away wet. {You'd think she's never cried before.}  
  
***  
  
Naya wrapped her arms around the two children and the lump in her throat seemed to grow bigger as an unfamiliar sensation stung the back of her eyes. A moment later her cheeks were wet. She opened her eyes and let go of the Kushinada children. Gingerly she touched a hand to her cheek and it came away wet.  
  
{What's happening to me? What is this? I've never done this before. Oh, why does my heart hurt so? What is this wetness?}  
  
"Its okay Naya. That mean lizard thing's gone. It won't hurt you anymore." Shen said.  
  
"Are you okay Naya? Do you still hurt?" Aiko asked with concern.  
  
"Naya, if you're in pain I can give you something for it." Kusanagi offered.  
  
"Pain is irrelevant." She replied absently. Then she shocked them all when she quickly levitated and flew over to the open window and out of it into the fresh morning air before any of them could move.  
  
"Naya!" Shen cried, startled.  
  
"Wait Naya! Come back!" Aiko cried as she ran to the window. Kusanagi was right on her heels.  
  
***  
  
{Where the heck is she going?! She's still in pretty bad shape, so why is she running away like this?} Kusanagi wondered as he stepped past his kids and onto the window ledge. As an afterthought he turned to them and said, "Tell your mother that I went after Naya but not to worry." The kids both nodded and looked after him as he jumped out the window. They both expected him to fly but instead he jumped from branch to branch across the trees away from the house.  
  
***  
  
{Why in the world did I do that? I probably would have been safer there than at the apartment. When Murakumo gets to me I'll die anyway, but there I'd at least have a little protection. Huh, why am I afraid of him all of a sudden? And why does my heart ache so?} She pondered as tears continued to fall. A small sob escaped her and she decided to land in the forest away from the town instead of going straight to the apartment.  
  
Her feet touched gently down on the ground but it seemed that her knees wouldn't hold her and she collapsed to the ground. Instead of picking herself up she lay on the ground and wept. For what, she didn't know, but as sob after sob wracked her slim body a memory surfaced that was long ago repressed.  
  
(Flashback)  
  
"Naya! Naya you slacker! Get over here! Don't try to hide from me you little wretch! I'll hunt you down and you know what'll happen to you. Don't make me hurt you again! NAYA!" Murakumo bellowed as he searched for his stray servant. Naya stayed hidden in a small alcove at the back of their dwelling. She knew she'd be in trouble but that was better than what Murakumo had wanted her to do. She wasn't going to fight him when he was drunk. It was better that she waited for her punishment later.  
  
{Its not very often. I'll find another hiding place. Its not like he'd kill me. Would he?} A shudder of fear swept down her spine. {It only happens once a year, that's all. Only one day a year. He'll be himself tomorrow and maybe he'll see what he was going to do to me and not punish me.} She didn't allow hope to rise in her though, because she knew it was a futile hope.  
  
"Naya! I've taken care of you all your life you ungrateful cur! Get out here now! I know you failed your mission! You might as well take what's coming to you now instead of later when I've had more time to invent a torture for you!"  
  
Naya shivered again, but this time a sob escaped her before she could muffle it. She sensed Murakumo's head swing around towards her hiding place. Then his footsteps got louder and louder as he approached it. It was the one place he'd overlooked. He'd thought Naya, at nine years old, had been too big to fit into the small hole in the wall, but somehow she'd managed it.  
  
Naya screamed when he reached in, grabbed her hair, and dragged her out by it. Then he proceeded to carry out his threat. {Why? Why am I such a disappointment?!} her mind screamed.  
  
Naya lost some of her innocence that night, and every year after that she was sent away to watch the Kushinada's on Murakumo's night of remembrance. Just as a precaution and to make sure he didn't kill them himself..  
  
(End flashback) ***  
  
Kusanagi watched from above as Naya crumpled to the ground and lay there sobbing. His heart ached right along with hers. Ever since he met Momiji he couldn't stand to see a girl cry, not even if they'd tried to kill him. {Why do I feel like I owe her so much? I saved her life, which's enough repayment for Aiko's life, but why? It seems like. I'm not sure. Like our fates are bound up together.}  
  
He jumped down from where he'd been sitting, watching her, and moved over towards her. He didn't try to conceal his approach because he knew from experience that a person trained like her would strike out at whoever approached.  
  
Gently he laid his hand on her shoulder and felt her stiffen as if expecting a blow. "Naya, its okay. You don't have to be afraid of me." He said softly, trying to ease her fears. After sitting down beside her he started to pull her up into a sitting position.  
  
She stiffened again and started whispering something. Kusanagi had to lean closer to hear and he was appalled. "No Murakumo, not again. Please don't hit me again. Please." {How could someone do that to their own child? That's just disgusting! You don't lay a hand on your child in anger!} He felt himself grow cold. {Most of her icy attitude must be because of the way she was raised. I think deep down inside she's still a child, waiting to be loved. Is that why she's crying?}  
  
He tried to pull her into a sitting position again, this time managing it. But much to his surprise, instead of trying to push him away she clutched at his shirt lay her head on his shoulder, still crying. He stroked her hair and whispered comforting nonsense to her like he did to his own children.  
  
He held her like that for most of an hour before her sobs finally subsided to soft sniffles and her breathing became normal instead of jerky. When he looked down at her she seemed to be asleep. {Huh, well, that's that I guess. Leave her? No, better stay until she wakes up.}  
  
He laid her down on the ground on her side. He was about to go sit up in a tree again when he saw the edge of a wallet sticking out of her back pocket. He gingerly reached down and quickly tugged it free.  
  
Naya Yoshioka age 25 Height: 5'9" Weight: 140 Eye color: green  
  
{Twenty five? Yeah, and I'm the king of England. Five nine? I'd say more Five six myself. 140? Huh! Maybe 120 but nothing over.. all this is a load of bull. Must have been made by Murakumo or something. I bet this is his vision of a "perfect soul." Well, at least it has her address. Might as well take her home.  
  
***  
  
Naya woke a second time that day in a familiar yet foreign place. She instantly recognized it as her apartment but she'd no idea how she got there. Going back over the time in her head she remembered Kusanagi, again, and that little bout of near hysterical weeping. {Why in the world does he keep doing this to me?}  
  
'You awake Naya?"  
  
"Yes, I-Thank you for bringing me back here." She said haltingly.  
  
"Don't worry about it. I must say though, I've never seen anyone carry on like that before!" He tried to make it into a joke, but he realized Naya must have no sense of humor because she blushed deeply and wrapped her arms around herself. "Um. that was suppose to be a joke."  
  
"A joke?" she echoed. {What's a joke?}  
  
"Yeah, you know, funny, ha ha.. laughter?"  
  
"Laughter."  
  
"Okay, we have got to work on your sense of humor. But hey, we've got time."  
  
"Time.." {Time is one thing I _don't_ have.}  
  
"Hey, are you okay? You haven't tried to kill me once yet today. In fact, instead of trying to kill me, you were crying on my shoulder. Is there something wrong?" Kusanagi mentally kicked himself. {Oh, yeah, state the obvious. Of course there's something wrong you idiot! Sheesh, you're acting exactly like you did when you were first around Momiji.} he thought.  
  
"Crying? Is that what its called?"  
  
"What? You really didn't know?" Kusanagi asked, very much surprised.  
  
"No, I've.. never done that before. I came close once when Murakumo- Murakumo! Please go Kusanagi! He'll be here soon! Please go! You haven't got much time!" She said as she gestured wildly at the window.  
  
"Whoa, hold on! I'm not leaving without you. I've got some questions I want to ask you first of all, and second, well, I'd rather not know why you're so afraid of him."  
  
"Please go Kusanagi, he's going to kill me! He'll kill you if he finds you here!"  
  
"Your own father would kill you?!"  
  
"Yes, but, I-" she stopped for a moment, collecting her thoughts before she continued, "I don't know why, but ever since I met you I've been questioning my worth, and my existence and. never mind. You need to leave. He knows where I am no matter where I go."  
  
"Finish what you were saying first." Kusanagi urged.  
  
"I'm.. I'm not sure that he's really my father."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~  
  
Dream Keeper: *evil laughter* That's where we leave you!  
  
Christa: *echoes the evil laughter* Aren't we cruel? We'll try and post the next part tomorrow.  
  
Dream Keeper: *evil grin* Sorry, but we didn't want to give too much away in one chapter.  
  
Christa: Okay, well, we appreciate REVIEWS so please R&R. That means read AND REVIEW!!!  
  
Dream Keeper: Thank you! Oh, and flames are accepted. Also corrections about things we messed up. Okay, bye!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~ 


	4. WHAT?!?!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~  
  
Dream Keeper: Okay, you know the drill. *clears throat* I do not own Blue Seed. *sniffs* I wish I did but I don't. The blue seed boys and girls all belong to their respectable owners. I am only borrowing them for this twisted fic and promise to return them, only slightly worse for the wear, when I'm through with them.  
  
Christa: Well, sorry about the cliff hanger last time but we had to get you people to come back somehow! Okay, this will probably be an odd chapter.  
  
Dream Keeper: Don't you mean it WILL be? Don't want to ruin anything so we'll let you have the next chapter.  
  
Christa: Or will we?  
  
Dream Keeper: You know. *looks at the fans* I think that you REALLY want hurt.  
  
Christa: *sees the fans brandish knives and other sharp, pointy objects* *sweatdrop* *gulps* Point taken. On with the fic!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~  
  
"Huh?!" Kusanagi exclaimed in surprise. "What do you mean?"  
  
"If I was his daughter, don't you think I'd be a perfect soul like him? I am not in any way perfect: mind, or soul."  
  
"For one, you are nothing like him, and for two, he's _NOT_ a perfect soul. No one any more perfect than anyone else. Just more powerful." The Kusanagi took time to really look at her. He took in her slender, but not frail body, her long blackish-green hair, her wide, expressive, almost catlike eyes, not to mention the strength that was concealed in her, and decided she was absolutely _not_ Murakumo's daughter. He was about to say something but her eyes drew his back to them and he looked at them a moment longer. They were almost normal blue eyes, but in the center of her eyes, which should have been black and round, were a vibrant green and shaped _exactly_ like a cats, down to piercing the main color of the eye.  
  
"What are you staring at?" She asked, raising a delicate eyebrow to punctuate the question. He was about to answer, but before he could her face lost all its color as she jumped off the bed and threw a bolt of power at him. He had to dodge out of the room to evade it, and the moment he did the door slammed shut and locked behind him.  
  
"What the heck are doing?!" he screamed at the door.  
  
"Murakumo!" he heard Naya yell from inside the door and a cold shiver ran down his back as he listened to what went on inside the room.  
  
***  
  
"Murakumo!" Naya yelped as he appeared in front of her.  
  
"I was wondering if you'd forgotten about me like you had your mission you ungrateful wench!" he yelled as he drew back his hand and slapped her full across the face, sending her sprawling on the floor. "Did you really think you could escape me?" he said scornfully as he deployed the sword-like blade from his forearm.  
  
"I never tried to escape you Murakumo! If I'd tried I would have succeeded." Naya retorted before she thought about what she was saying.  
  
Murakumo's eyes widened a little and his frown deepened considerably. "So, I see the little drone had gotten a mind of its own finally. That won't do at all. Tsk, tsk. I guess I'll just have to kill you!" He raised the blade over his head and brought it down in one fluid movement. Naya closed her eyes tightly, raised her arms as if to block the blow, and waited for it.  
  
A minute went by, then two before she had the courage to open one eye. She found herself staring straight at the tip of the blade that she'd thought was going to impale her.  
  
"What's the matter Murakumo. Are you too afraid to kill me? Have you finally lost your nerve?" she taunted. "Are you too afraid to kill your own flesh and blood?" Naya gathered up all of her courage and spat full in his face.  
  
Murakumo leered at her as he calmly wiped his face on the back of his coat sleeve. "No. There are some preparations to be made before I can do that." He raised his hands and the furniture around the room seemed to twist and melt until, no matter what it had been made out of, it was a strait, rectangular pillar. Then a stream of energy leaped out of his matamas and wrapped around each of them and when he jerked his wrists towards his body they all flew towards the center of the room and surrounded Naya and himself. Then, with another flick of his power, they glazed over and turned a dark gray color.  
  
"What are you doing?" Naya shrieked.  
  
"I'm killing you. Oh, and Naya, by the way. You're not my daughter. Someone with a soul that's more imperfect than Kusanagi's could never be my daughter. I would have drowned her at birth."  
  
"NO!" Kusanagi screamed from the other side of the door. Murakumo looked towards the door and thought for a moment.  
  
"You intended to carry out your mission after all? Than I'll let you. By sundown Naya. You have until then. Oh, I mustn't forget," he said as he bent toward her. In one fluid movement his blade sliced across her chest. Naya screamed and fell sideways as the matama there fell away from her and into his hand.  
  
"That's better. Maybe you'll be a little more inclined to obey me now that I have this." He threw back his head and laughed as she lay clutching at her chest. His laughter was the very essence of evil. "Oh, one more thing." From his outstretched hand a stream of lightning hot energy was released and Naya let out a scream that made the glass in the room crack as it came in contact with her body.  
  
Waves of pain rolled in and receded just like the waves of the ocean. Lightning gripped her body fully, with all its intensity. Nothing could have blotted out the pain, except for the brief moments when the lightning receded, only to come back ten times harder the next time. She heard someone screaming, but she couldn't identify who.  
  
{It's a cruel game that Murakumo plays with the person he's torturing. They must be in incredible pain. I wish he would stop} she thought. Her head hurt too much to think further and her heart felt like it was going to explode. {Why don't they give into the inevitable?}  
  
A loud bang and the sound of splintering wood half woke her out of her pain induced trance. All the pain that she'd thought for a feverish moment was someone else's came crashing back into her reality.  
  
"LEAVE HER ALONE!" someone yelled from somewhere behind the weird ring Murakumo had made. Naya didn't care. All she cared about was the pain. Then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone. She was left panting on the floor, entirely exhausted and naked, for the lightning had charred her clothes to cinders.  
  
"Remember Naya, tonight." Murakumo whispered in her ear as he dragged his blade across her cheek and a small trickle of blood was left in its wake. Then he was gone. A second later another splintering sound was heard and someone kneeled down beside her.  
  
"Naya. Naya! Come on, look at me!" the voice commanded. She shivered and the person left her side.  
  
{He's leaving.} she realized vaguely. {He must think I'm too much trouble to deal with.} She lay there and felt her anger rise, at who she didn't know, but it weighed her down like a stone tied around her neck. It quickly evaporated though, when she became aware of the feather soft touch of a blanket being draped over her. "Thank you." She managed to croak. When she opened her eyes she saw Kusanagi wasn't looking at her, but around her at the pillars that stood, testifying to what had happened just a moment ago.  
  
***  
  
"A ceramic field." Kusanagi muttered to himself. {How the hell can this be? Kaede never had any kids, and I've never, except with Momiji. Our first child died. How could there be another Kushinada besides Aiko and Shen? It just doesn't make sense!} "Your welcome," he said absently. {The only solution I can come up with is bringing her home with me. I hope Momiji doesn't mind. Well, she didn't the last time.}  
  
He became aware of her whimpering and looked down. Blood was soaking through a small spot of the blanket. "What the hell did that bastard do to you?" he asked as he carefully peeled the blanket away, making sure not to let it slide too low. A small piece of her skin seemed to be missing.  
  
"I told you he'd come back Kusanagi. Why wouldn't you listen? He could have finished me off sooner rather than later. Why? Why did you save me? Do you enjoy torturing me so?" she screamed, tears running down her cheeks, as she feebly pounded her fists against his chest. He let her. She was too weak to hurt him.  
  
"I won't let him kill you. Not while I can stop it. We need to get you dressed and back to my house so we can keep you safe."  
  
"Alright," she said as she stood on unsteady legs. She stayed standing for exactly two seconds before her knees buckled. Luckily Kusanagi was there to catch her. "I think I'm going to need some help." She looked at him apologetically and Kusanagi blushed.  
  
It took ten minutes to get her dressed, even with Kusanagi helping to support her. He was blushing the deepest shade of crimson anyone can manage by the time she was dressed. He hadn't been much help, he knew, since he'd been looking anywhere but her.  
  
As she dragged her socks onto her feet he thought. He still couldn't come up with conclusion as to who she was. "How in the world did she survive what Murakumo did to her anyway?"  
  
"I'm not quite sure how myself." Naya responded. Kusanagi jumped at the sound of her voice and looked at her. "No, I didn't read your mind. You were thinking out loud."  
  
Kusanagi smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I'm just so confused. Do you know who your mother was?"  
  
Naya shook her head. "I'm sorry. I never had a mother. Or if I did, I don't remember her. Murakumo probably killed her if she even stayed around," she muttered miserably. Under her breath she echoed Murakumo's words to herself. "I would have drowned her at birth." {He would have had he known I would turn out like this.}  
  
"I'm glad he didn't. It would have been a waste of a perfectly wonderful girl," Kusanagi said as he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We need to get going."  
  
"Sure."  
  
~*~  
  
"Momiji, I'm home!" Kusanagi called as he entered the house.  
  
"Kusanagi, I'm so glad your safe!" Momiji said as she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. "I was so worried that that girl had done something to you. I almost started to think she really did kill you!"  
  
"Well, she didn't. She didn't even try. Forget that she ever did though. It doesn't matter."  
  
"What? What do you mean?" She raised her eyebrow and gave him the "you've done something and I know it" look. "What's going on?"  
  
Kusanagi stepped aside and a self-conscious girl stepped into view. She stood there shuffling her feet uneasily. "Momiji, meet Naya." Kusanagi said evenly.  
  
Momiji only faltered for a moment. "I'm glad to meet you." She pasted a smile on her face and held out her hand. "It's a pleasure."  
  
Naya stared puzzled at the offered hand for a moment before she awkwardly extended her own, grasped Momiji's, and shook it. "The pleasure is all mine," she replied quietly.  
  
"NAYA!" two voices cried in unison and came running to her. Kusanagi knew they were going to be all over her so he wisely intercepted his children.  
  
"Not right now. Both of you have chores to do." Both of them groaned and walked away, steeling glances over their shoulders. Naya waved at them as the left. When Kusanagi turned back towards her and his wife she threw him a grateful look.  
  
"What was all that about?" Momiji wanted to know.  
  
"Naya had a run in with an old friend of ours," Kusanagi said sarcastically.  
  
"Murakumo?" Momiji's face paled a little. "I think we should go into the living room."  
  
{What in the world is Momiji up to? There's something she's not telling us and I know it. She's not that good at hiding things.} They emerged into the living room and Kusanagi saw a woman standing with her back to them as she inspected the titles of the books on the shelf before her. "Sakura?" Kusanagi said in surprise. "How are you?"  
  
The woman turned and flashed him a dazzling smile. "Well, the great Kusanagi has been taught some manners! I never thought it possible. I'm doing fine. And you?"  
  
"Fine. What are you doing here?"  
  
"I heard about some Aragami disturbances," she said frankly.  
  
"Oh." Kusanagi took a minute to study her. She wasn't the oversexed brat who thought she could do everything that she'd once been. He knew that the moment he'd laid eyes on her. She was now a sophisticated woman who thought she could do everything.  
  
"Sakura, this is Naya," Momiji said after a moment of silence.  
  
Sakura's eyes traveled to the younger woman standing beside them and grew larger. Immediately she reached into her purse and drew out a slip of paper with ceremonial writing on it. "Die Aragami scum!" she yelled as she started to throw it, but Kusanagi promptly plucked it out of her hand. "What the heck did you do that for? You've got an Aragami in your house!"  
  
"Naya is our guest and so are you. We prefer that one guest doesn't incinerate the other in this house, no matter what the cause," He said evenly, somehow managing to keep a straight face when he spoke.  
  
"Guest?" she echoed. "Have you been brainwashed?!"  
  
"Sakura! You're being rather rude!" Momiji said in a slightly raised voice.  
  
"Well its an Aragami!"  
  
"Stop being such a-"  
  
"Its quite alright Momiji. She has every right to want to kill me. I am a worthless Aragami after all," said quietly.  
  
Kusanagi spun around to face her. "I thought I already told you, you are not Murakumo's daughter!" he yelled. Everyone stared at him.  
  
"I think maybe we'd better sit down and have one of you explain this." Sakura told them as she sat down in a chair, rather than fall on the floor.  
  
Half and hour later Sakura new every detail about what had gone on in the past few days. She sat quietly for a few minutes digesting the information she'd been given. "Oh, Momiji, what I came here to tell you was. was that.. the. The TAC, everyone but us is gone." Her voice was so choked with tears that she couldn't say anything else.  
  
"Gone? You mean-you mean they're all dead? Mr. Kunakita? Koume? Everyone?" Sakura nodded. "Oh God, that means one of us is next," she whispered.  
  
"No." All eyes in the room turned to Naya. "Neither of you will die, I assure you. I take full responsibility for what happened." She hung her head. "I killed them," she whispered. "I killed them all."  
  
"You?" Kusanagi asked, completely shocked. He'd thought her incapable of doing that to anyone, not just the kids.  
  
"They didn't deserve to die! I killed them in cold blood! I shouldn't have! I should have stuck to the mission Murakumo gave me and just killed Kusanagi and the Kushinadas!" When she realized what she was saying, she clamped her hands over her mouth.  
  
"Sit back down." Sakura ordered and Naya realized that she'd gotten up when she'd gotten agitated. "How many matamas do you have?"  
  
"Two. Just two now."  
  
"Now?" Sakura asked, arching a graceful eyebrow. Kusanagi and Momiji sat quiet, knowing Sakura was getting at something.  
  
"Murakumo took one from me today." Her eyes seemed to glaze over and her face lost some of its life.  
  
"You were FLYING with only THREE MATAMAS?!" Kusanagi shouted. {Now I've heard everything. Either that or I'm really dead and this is an afterlife set up to torture me.  
  
"Yes, is there a problem with that? Should I be able to fly with less?" Naya asked, concerned that she was being scolded.  
  
"Can you still fly?" Sakura asked.  
  
"I'm not sure."  
  
"Try," Sakura demanded. Naya bowed and stood. Promptly she rose about an inch in the air before she fell to the ground. "Guess not." Sakura said, slightly amused.  
  
"Thelma! Come back here!" Aiko called from the hallway as a huge dog bounded into the room. A shriek was heard and Naya shot up from the floor and somehow was floating in the air right next to the ceiling. That was the only thing that kept her from going farther.  
  
"Thelma go!" Sakura commanded. The dog put its tail between its legs and started to back out of the room. "Heel." Thelma came forward and Sakura produced a bone for the dog before she sent it out of the room. "Sorry, she's a bit sensitive. Are you okay?" Sakura asked as Momiji shut the door against further intrusions.  
  
Naya had been so terrified it seemed that she'd retreated to some remote corner of her mind. When Sakura spoke she snapped back to herself and found that she was floating in the air. At the same time she remembered that not only was she not able to fly, but that she was without one matama and she was very weak.  
  
Immediately following that, she fell. Kusanagi jumped out of his chair, caught her, and deposited her on the couch before returning to his seat. "You know Momiji, she's about as much trouble as you use to be," he commented. Kusanagi was rewarded with a punch on the arm.  
  
"You'd better watch it Kusanagi," Momiji joked. "You might get another admirer."  
  
"Heavens forbid."  
  
"I'm sorry Thelma scared you. I forgot she was here. You're afraid of dogs then?"  
  
"That was a dog?" Naya asked as she trembled.  
  
"Well, yes. Haven't you ever seen one before?"  
  
"No. To tell the truth all I've seen are small dogs. For a moment I thought it was a hell hound," she admitted.  
  
"A hell hound?"  
  
"Never mind. Before, what was its name, Thelma came in, you were saying?"  
  
"Is that the total amount of matamas you've ever had?"  
  
"No. For a day, once, to complete a mission Murakumo lent me a fourth one."  
  
"What was that mission?"  
  
"I'd rather not talk about it," Naya whispered as she lowered her eyes from Sakura's face.  
  
"Where was the matama located that Murakumo took?" Sakura demanded.  
  
"Here." Naya pulled down her shirt a bit, just enough for them to see the spot that Murakumo had cut.  
  
Sakura let out a bark of laughter and a sad smile filled with irony spread across her face. "Well, I guess the TAC got what it deserved after all." A tear slid down her cheek and she wiped it away with an impatient hand.  
  
"What do you mean?" Momiji asked. "They didn't deserve that!"  
  
"You remember your first child, Calida?" Sakura didn't bother to be nice about the touchy subject.  
  
Momiji's eyes instantly misted over with tears she vowed never again to shed. "How could I forget?"  
  
"Your child never died, or at least not that we know of." Sakura said. She made sure to stay as detached from her heart as she could.  
  
"I was there! I saw her put into the ground Sakura! Don't give me this crap that she didn't die!" Momiji sobbed. Kusanagi moved and pulled her into a comforting hug.  
  
"That baby wasn't yours. You see neither Kusanagi nor myself thought that the Aragami were entirely gone. There were just little things that indicated that, but we thought we'd ignore it and see what happened. Then you, Momiji, became with child and everything changed. We knew the Aragami weren't dead because of a, well, you could call it a birthmark your baby had." She took a breath before going on.  
  
"If you remember, Ryoko had her baby on the same day as you. All of the TAC but Ryoko saw the baby and it was decided that they would be switched right then and there. No one wanted a chance of the Kushinada being killed. So in the dead of night they spirited Calida away up to Ryoko's room and Mr. Kunakita put his child in her place.  
  
No one knew of the birth defect at the time, but it resulted in Alla's death. The baby you buried was Alla. The day of the funeral, when everyone was milling around, Calida was spirited away by someone. No one knew who and they never found her, or a body, but it was assumed that she was dead. Ryoko found out what Mr. Kunakita had done and she was very distraught. That's why their marriage ended."  
  
"You went along with that? How could you! YOU BITCH!" Momiji leaped across the space between them and grabbed for Sakura's throat, but Kusanagi grabbed her and held her back.  
  
"You'd better get out of our house before I kill you myself." Kusanagi growled. Even he had tears coursing down his cheeks.  
  
"But your daughter isn't dead Kusanagi. She's sitting right there." Sakura said, smiling slightly, a she pointed at Naya.  
  
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Dream Keeper: So, how'd you like?  
  
Christa: Okay, we know, a few too many tears, but hey, it makes a good story! ^_^  
  
Dream Keeper: Well, thanx all you loyal readers for your support and kind reviews! You really make our day!  
  
Christa: *yawns* Time for bed! Next chapter coming sometime in the next two months!  
  
Dream Keeper: Sorry, we're having a bit of trouble typing some fics because they are all chapter fics and we've got writers block on some of them!  
  
Christa: So we've got to get some chapters up on those. Hope you enjoyed. Night! *peace sign*  
  
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	5. Shocking Ending

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Dream Keeper: Okay, you know the drill. *clears throat* I do not own Blue Seed. *sniffs* I wish I did but I don't. The blue seed boys and girls all belong to their respectable owners. I am only borrowing them for this twisted fic and promise to return them, only slightly worse for the wear, when I'm through with them.  
  
Christa: We hope anyway. We never know who she'll kill! Oh, as always, any character that you haven't heard of is ours! With the exception of the name Naya. That belongs to Sandra a.k.a. Wufei lover.  
  
Dream Keeper: Did you enjoy the last chapter? *sly grin* Hope you did. Did anyone figure it out before Sakura said it? *in the background Chibi Usa is heard shouting "Me! Me!"*  
  
Christa: *sweatdrop* That is one of our two editors/ sisters so of course she's gunna figure it out! We have to bounce ideas off of her! *evil grin* *grabs a ball with idea written on it and bounces it off of Dream Keepers head*  
  
Dream Keeper: Ak! You little.. something I won't say! *starts to run after the retreating muse* *stops* Hope you enjoy this chapter of the fic. I'm not QUITE sure but I think it's the last one. *grabs Koume's gun and runs after Christa*  
  
Koume: First you kill me off in this fic, and then you steal my gun? I DON'T THINK SO! *runs after them both*  
  
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"What?!" all three cried in unison at Sakura's accusation.  
  
"Must I really repeat myself? I just told you that the girl sitting right there is your daughter. Naya is really Calida."  
  
"You must be mistaken, ma'am," Naya said shakily. "Murakumo would have killed me the moment he laid his hands on me if I was Kusanagi's daughter. He didn't, so I can't be." Momiji, unable to speak because of the intense emotions she was feeling, nodded in agreement.  
  
Kusanagi sat frozen to his chair. He couldn't move, couldn't think, he actually forgot to breath for one painful moment and had to remind himself that blue wasn't his best color. {By god, that would explain so much. but do I dare believe it? Could it really be true?}  
  
"Obviously you have something you'd like to share with the class," Sakura said when she caught sight of the look on his face. It was a mix of absolute terror, revulsion, and happiness.  
  
"She's right, Momiji. Naya is our daughter."  
  
"What?!" Momiji shouted, finding her voice again. "Did you conspire with them to get rid of her?!" She jumped up from the couch, preparing for a battle but Kusanagi laid a calming hand on her arm and gently, but firmly, pushed her back down onto her seat.  
  
"No, but everything that's happened in the last few days is starting to make sense. I was listening to Murakumo yell at her earlier today, oh did I forget to mention that?" he asked when both Sakura and Momiji's jaws dropped open. "I heard something weird going on in there and when I finally got into the room, he'd put up a ceramic field around her. And the things I heard him say about her. He always called me an imperfect soul. He referred to her like that also, telling her she wasn't good enough. He even admitted that she wasn't his daughter."  
  
"That doesn't prove anything," Naya protested, but she bit off what she was going to say when Kusanagi held up his hand.  
  
"If you need anymore proof, look at her eyes. They're an exact mix between yours and mine," he said, addressing Momiji this time. She looked and this time bent to the inevitably conclusion. Naya's eyes were exactly like theirs and their other children's. The coloring was blue, like hers, but instead of having a black center, they were pierced through by a green slit like a cat's  
  
"And how did you expect to keep this from us if you had succeeded in pulling off the switch?" Momiji demanded angrily. "Her eyes alone would have given it away."  
  
"We were never going to let you see her. She was always going to be somewhere else. Once we were sure that we were wrong, we were going to tell you, but as you can see, we weren't wrong. We took the necessary precautions, it just didn't work the way we'd hoped. We don't know how the Aragami found out, but somehow they knew that she was your daughter, not Ryoko's. After Naya disappeared, we didn't have the heart to tell you."  
  
"Didn't have the heart to tell us?" Kusanagi demanded, jumping up from his chair. "You could have told us then and saved us all a lot of heart ache! Especially Naya! I don't know even a margin of what she's been through and I know that I never could have survived it! We could have looked for her and gotten her back before Murakumo had a chance to warp her perception on the world!"  
  
"Kusanagi, calm down," Sakura said warily.  
  
"Don't tell me to calm down! You barged in here today trying to kill her and then end up telling us she's our long lost daughter?! AND YOU WANT ME TO REMAIN CALM?!" Everyone winced as he screamed VERY loudly at her. He went on to call her every name under the sun but a saint and described quite a few things that she should go do that were anatomically impossible. His language was so colorful that even the battle hardened Naya colored a deep shade of crimson.  
  
When he finally ran out of things to call her Kusanagi flopped back down onto his chair and glared venomously at her. Naya blinked and said, "I never knew you possessed such a colorful array of profanity." Despite the graveness of the situation the three adults started laughing. Naya just sat there looking puzzled. "What did I say?" she asked.  
  
Kusanagi sighed and shook his head. "You really need to learn what a sense of humor is. Oh well, we'll have time to teach you."  
  
"No," she interjected. "We don't have time for anything."  
  
"What do you mean?" Momiji asked carefully.  
  
Naya looked at the clock on the wall and found that it was already past three. "Murakumo will be coming to kill me soon."  
  
"Coming to kill you?" Sakura demanded. "But how can he know where you are?"  
  
Naya shrugged and looked at her hands. "He always seems to know where I am. I don't know how he does it, but he does. The fact stands that he told me to complete my mission by sundown. I refuse to complete it."  
  
"What was your mission?" Momiji asked before Kusanagi could stop her.  
  
"To kill you," Naya answered her. "To kill all of you. But I can't do it. I don't think I ever wanted to. I just can't kill you. Especially not the Kushinada children."  
  
"Your brother and sister," Kusanagi corrected her.  
  
"Yes," Naya agreed hesitantly. Then she looked into Momiji's eyes, hers seeming to beg for understanding. "I have to leave before he comes here. I can't risk them. or you. I don't want any of you to get hurt."  
  
"No!" Kusanagi said sharply. "I won't allow you to leave. You're weak and you wouldn't stand a chance against him."  
  
"I know that I'm weak, but that doesn't matter. If there is anything I can do to atone for all the death I have dealt out then I want to do it, and I think this is my one chance. If I can stop even one of you from getting killed then I will count myself lucky!" she argued with him.  
  
"No!" Momiji said, getting out of her chair to cross the distance between them. "I won't let you go. We just found you. Don't make us loose you again." She threw her arms around her daughter and hugged her tightly.  
  
Naya stood impassive in the woman's embrace before she set her forcefully from her. "I can't, Momiji. He will come to get me, and then he will kill you. I can't take that risk."  
  
"And what if he doesn't come?" Sakura asked suddenly.  
  
"But he will."  
  
"What if he doesn't," she insisted.  
  
Naya shrugged helplessly. "I don't dare let myself hope, but if he didn't kill me, then I'd come back. If you're willing to have me," she amended shyly.  
  
"Of course we will," Kusanagi told her as if she'd lost her mind. "You're our daughter."  
  
"But I also tried to kill you. That alone would make most people hate me."  
  
"But not us," he told her.  
  
"Please, don't leave," Momiji begged, taking the younger woman's hand in hers.  
  
"How can you care for me? You only just met me," Naya asked after a long drawn out moment.  
  
"How do you know how to breath?" her mother countered.  
  
Naya smiled in spite of herself, knowing where she belonged at last. Slowly, hesitantly she embraced her mother and whispered, "Then I'll stay for as long as I can."  
  
~*~  
  
That night they sat down at the dinner table together as a family. Shen and Aiko had taken the news that Naya was their long lost sister very well. They'd been delighted and had argued for some time about whose room she was going to stay in, until Kusanagi settled it by giving her the guestroom.  
  
"Would you like some more soup?" Momiji asked politely.  
  
"No, thank you," Naya told her. "I've eaten enough."  
  
"But you've hardly eaten anything," Kusanagi observed.  
  
"I'm not used to eating much. If I do now, I might get sick."  
  
"Oh," Kusanagi said, realizing that she was right. Rich foods after a long fast did tent to make one sick.  
  
"I want some more soup mommy," Shen said, holding his bowl out to her.  
  
"What do you say?" she asked him.  
  
"Please?" he said, giving her a smile that, Naya thought, was sure to dazzle girls when he was older. Momiji returned his smile and filled his bowl for him a third time.  
  
"Where are you putting all that food, little man?" Naya teased him. "I don't believe you're really eating all that. You're too skinny!" She reached over and tickled him to punctuate her point. He erupted into a fit of giggles and squirmed away from her.  
  
"Now, now, children," Momiji chided gently, smiling herself.  
  
"I love you, Naya," Shen said suddenly. His oldest sister looked at him in shock and tried to think of something to say. She looked to Kusanagi for help, bewilderment showing on her face. He understood what she was going through. He hadn't understood what love was either until he'd started truly dating Momiji.  
  
"Eat your dinner, Shen," he told his son gently as he set his bowl down in front of him.  
  
"Sunset," Naya said wistfully as she looked out the window, watching the glorious sun sink down past the horizon. {I wonder if I'm really free. Will he come for me, or decide that I'm too much of a bother? What's going to happen to them? He'll never let them live, as long as he has life in his own body. Can I really protect them?}  
  
"Isn't it pretty?" Aiko asked, breaking her out of her musings.  
  
"Yes, its lovely-," Naya started to say, but then she started screaming. Murakumo came rushing through the window and a stream of lightning wrapped itself around her (yet again. Ouch!).  
  
"I told you once never to disobey me. Now you will pay the price!" he yelled, his voice holding no sanity. Kusanagi jumped at him, trying to intervene, but Murakumo sent him hurtling backwards with a blast of power. He landed heavily on his back, striking his head against a wall. There he laid stunned. At the same time, Momiji was screaming for Shen and Aiko to run. They didn't listen, but stayed petrified in their seats.  
  
Knowing their lives could depend on it, Momiji grabbed a wickedly sharp, and long, kitchen knife before throwing herself at Naya's attacker. "You bastard! Leave her alone!" she screamed.  
  
"You would interfere with me?!" Murakumo yelled, releasing the younger woman and redirecting his power to her. Momiji screamed and went down immediately. Naya who, once she was released from the blinding pain of the spell, finally came back to herself understood what she had to do. Her muscles screamed as she forced herself to stand and scramble over to her mother.  
  
"Wake up!" she yelled, shaking her. When she didn't respond Naya tried a different tactic. Knowing that her parents would hate her if anything happened to them, she grabbed her younger sister and brother and fled towards the door. Murakumo appeared in front of her just as she reached it and backhanded her across the face.  
  
"You can't escape me! I own you! I made you what you are!" he yelled as Naya fell, rolling so that her siblings weren't harmed, but coming up on top so their attacker couldn't get them. "I should kill you now!"  
  
"Shen, Aiko, I want you to run. You remember where the police station is? There's a hotel next to it. That lady, Sakura, is staying there. Go get her. Stay together and don't stop running, no matter what you hear." Naya commanded to them. "GO NOW!" She stood upright and deployed both blades from both her arms. The double blades glistened silver in the light as the curved back like scythes. One was slightly shorter than the other, but somehow she figured that four were better than one.  
  
"You dare to defy me again?!" He screamed as she launched herself at him.  
  
"NO!" Kusanagi yelled as he watched two of his children run out into the night, and his eldest condemn herself to death. Time seemed to slow down as he watched. Naya seemed to fly through the air, her hair streaming out behind her as she gave a battle cry fit to curdle blood. Murakumo deployed his own blade and used it to block hers. Naya twisted in the air and brought her left arm up, looking to let her blade kiss his throat.  
  
Murakumo's blade sliced into the back of her arm, cutting deep, and she winced in pain, faltering in her beautiful, deadly dance for an instant. An instant was all it took. Murakumo freed his blade from her and brought it up, hitting her in the back with the flat of it. Naya was thrown forward but he reached out and jerked her back towards him, hitting her upside the head with the flat of the blade. Even so, a trickle of blood appeared at the edge of her temple. Murakumo laughed evilly as he held is prey limp within his arms.  
  
Had it been up in an art gallery, Kusanagi would have admired the picture they made. Murakumo floated above the ground, his toes delicately pointed down in his boots, almost as if he was balanced precariously there. His hair flowed out behind him like a cape, whipping in the wind. His bladed arm hung down to is side and he gazed down at Naya with the look of a preternatural vampire. She lay limp in his arm, her head rolled to one side. Blood covered her in places, but it seemed to add to the mystery. The monstrous beauty was only broken when Momiji screamed.  
  
"NAYA!!!" she cried as she dragged herself into a sitting position. Murakumo slowly turned towards her and smiled.  
  
"Now the kushinada is mine again. If you want to save her, come to my domain."  
  
"Where is that?!" Kusanagi demanded. Murakumo's smile just widened. Then he vanished, taking Naya with him.  
  
Sakura arrived not soon after with a screech of wheels as her car shrieked to a stop outside their door. She burst in, expecting to find aragami, but the only thing that met her eyes was all the blood and Kusanagi holding Momiji close to him. He rocked her and stroked her hair, trying to comfort her.  
  
"What went on here?" she asked, afraid for the first time in a long time.  
  
"He took her!" Momiji sobbed. "That bastard took her!"  
  
"Where's Naya?" Shen asked, as he peered fearfully around the house from his place behind Sakura's leg.  
  
"Daddy, why is mommy crying?" Aiko wanted to know.  
  
"The bad man who attacked us, hurt Naya and took her away," Kusanagi explained. "Your mommy's sad because she'd gone."  
  
"Is she going to come back?" Shen asked fearfully.  
  
"Yes. We're going to get her back Shen," Sakura said forcefully. Her eyes locked with Kusanagi's and he nodded his understanding. They knew that she may already be dead, but they were both damned determined that she would come back to them one way or another.  
  
"Do you have any idea where she may be?" Sakura asked after their moment of silent exchange. Kusanagi merely shook his head angrily. He didn't have any idea at all where Murakumo might have gone. If he'd known, he would have confronted and killed him long before this.  
  
"He told us to come to his domain," Momiji said finally, getting a grip on herself. Her younger children ran into her arms and she hugged them close, like they'd disappear if she let go. Looking up at her old rival she wondered aloud, "Do you think he meant-"  
  
"The old lair? He might have. Its worth a try to find out. Come on Kusanagi."  
  
"Wait, shouldn't we find somewhere safe for Shen and Aiko to stay?" Momiji protested.  
  
"They're safe enough with you," Kusanagi told her. "Be careful."  
  
"You're just leaving me?!" she demanded. "She's my daughter too!"  
  
"Momiji, you'll just be in the way," Sakura said harshly, even though all of them knew it was the truth. She was still clumsy and scatterbrained, just like she'd been as a teenager.  
  
Bowing her head in submission, Momiji reluctantly agreed with a nod. "Promise you'll come back to me," she whispered. "And bring out daughter back."  
  
"I will," Kusanagi said as he kissed her on top of her head. Then he bade his family farewell and followed Sakura out into the night. They were both silent as they drove, each lost in their own thoughts. Neither wanted to even think about what might actually be awaiting them.  
  
***  
  
Naya slowly awakened and stifled a cry of pain as all her hurts made themselves known to her. Even opening her eyes was an effort of will and the dim light of the cavern was, for once, a relief. At least she didn't have bright light stabbing down onto her to compact her misery.  
  
She was tied down to a stone slab that, she swore, hadn't been there when she left. Strange gray pillars surrounded her and it seemed that she was somehow weaker. Naya pulled at the ropes to test them, but they held strong, the knots unbearably tight.  
  
"I see you're awake," Murakumo sneered as he sat gazing at her.  
  
"What's your damned point?" she spat, too hurt, and tired to care if she was provoking him or not. Not that it mattered at all. She'd be dead soon enough, if he had anything to say about it.  
  
'You've been asleep for quite some time. Long enough for Kusanagi and that annoying bitch to find us. I'm actually surprised it took them so little time. Humans are usually predictable in their naivete. Most wouldn't even have bothered looking back in my old lair. Most would have been looking in other caverns."  
  
"You underestimate my father," Naya told him fiercely. Surprise and rage flickered across her old masters face for a moment before he smoothed it back into a mask of utter calm.  
  
"So you've learned about your past. Interesting. How does it feel knowing that you killed people that were practically your family? Does it feel good to have their blood staining your hands? Are you looking forward to your trip to hell?"  
  
Naya thought about not dignifying the comment with an answer but then she felt herself slipping back into the oblivion of sleep and decided that talking with him was better than loosing consciousness. "You want to know how it feels, but I doubt you'd ever understand. Even before I killed the TAC I was sickened. Sickened by all the deaths you had me cause, for no reason other than to learn how best to kill someone. The TAC was just the next step.  
  
"I killed them one by one, but I killed them swiftly and caused them the least amount of pain that I could, but I doubt anything could redeem me. It doesn't matter now anyway. Done is done and we can't change it. The only thing I take pride in is the fact that I was crying every time I killed _anyone_, and questioning just why the hell I had to do it. _And_ I was sick every time afterwards. I guess that proves that I could never be a murderer like you. As for hell? What are you speaking of? I'm already in hell."  
  
"I very much doubt that!" Murakumo yelled, seeming to loose all his sanity at once. "Hell I having your plans foiled by an imperfect soul, who can't even beat you without an eighth matama. Hell is having to hide yourself underground for nineteen years before you can exact your revenge. Hell is having to raise an obnoxious soul as imperfect as the Kushinada's." He stopped and drew a deep breath, trying fruitlessly to collect himself.  
  
"Wow, its as easy as all that? Interesting," Naya taunted. She was rewarded with a heavy blow to her ribs. All of her breath was driven from her lungs by the force of the impact and blood flecks sprayed from her mouth and onto her captor. As she struggled for air Murakumo calmly wiped them off his face.  
  
"Don't taunt me you little - Ah, it seems that your rescuers have finally arrived. I think I'll let them say their good-byes before I kill you." With that, he seemed to vanish, but only after duck taping her mouth closed.  
  
"Naya? Naya?! Are you here?" Kusanagi called as he came running into the underground cave. Naya glimpsed him through a gap in the pillars but was helpless to stop him. She tried to cry out, but couldn't.  
  
"There!" Sakura yelled, pointing towards her. They both ran to her side and proceeded to untie her. She thrashed and tried to hit them, drive them away from her, but they didn't seem to understand. "Naya, its okay, its us, not Murakumo," the other woman tried to sooth her. Naya shook her head violently but it was no use. When finally both hands were free she reached up and peeled off her gag.  
  
"You fools! It's a trap! Do you really think he'd let you off this easily?!" Both adults went on guard, not even having thought about it. They'd been too intent on saving their charge to worry about traps.  
  
"Silly, imperfect souls. The girl is right. You're all hopelessly rusty. Not enough trouble in the upper-world? Well, that can be fixed," Murakumo's voice echoed through the cavern. Soon after he appeared off to their left.  
  
"You bastard!" Kusanagi yelled as he launched himself at his opponent.  
  
"No! You idiot! You'll never beat him alone!" Naya screamed. Sakura started to move forward but she stopped her. "No! We need to work together or we don't have a snowball's chance in the desert!"  
  
Sakura gave her a hard, appraising look before nodding curtly and brandishing one of her famous papers (from god knows where!). Then with another nod they both threw themselves into the fray. Murakumo merely laughed and flew up out of their reach. Kusanagi cursed and tried to follow but knew he couldn't.  
  
"Die aragami scum!" Sakura yelled, throwing her paper. Their foe merely batted it away like he would a fly. Sakura stood stunned. It wasn't often something was more powerful than her wards.  
  
"This is a pathetic waste of my time," Murakumo scoffed. "Can't you do any better?"  
  
"Father, take my hand," Naya commanded, holding her hand towards Kusanagi without looking at him. He took it and instantly it felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. His feet left the ground effortlessly and he grinned wickedly. This was even easier with Naya than it had ever been with Momiji. Maybe because she'd had lots of practice?  
  
"Interesting choice," Murakumo said as he watched them raise. As they quickly drew nearer to him he made a show of yawning and then dove past them towards the other woman.  
  
"No, Sakura!" Kusanagi yelled as he quickly turned, hoping to intercept. Fear bubbled up inside him as he realized that it was already too late. Murakumo had already deployed his sword-like blade and a few scant feet from his friend. She screamed and tried to throw herself aside but he was quicker. His sword bit into her body cruelly and her eyes grew wide with pain. She clutched at his arm in vain, trying to deny her fate even as her lifeblood rushed from the sound in her stomach.  
  
"No!" Naya screamed as she watched the older woman be lifted a few feet of the ground before her master lowered his blade contemptuously. The wet sound of her sliding off it made the two in the air sick, but the fallen woman smiled a humorless smile as she hit the ground.  
  
"What's-" Kusanagi started to say when Murakumo suddenly yelled in pain. He slapped at the seal that his victim had laid on him, but in vain. It seemed to fuse with his skin and _grow_.  
  
"How dare you!" he bellowed as he landed next to her.  
  
"Payback's a bitch, asshole, and so am I," Sakura spat before a coughing fit overtook her. Blood dribbled down the side of her chin and she gasped for air. "Finish him now Kusanagi!" she yelled.  
  
"What about you?" Naya demanded, even as her father hastened them to do as she'd bid.  
  
"I'm dying, but I've got no regrets," she told them defiantly. "I got exactly what I deserved." Then her head lolled to the side and she stilled.  
  
"You'll pay!" Kusanagi screamed at Murakumo as they charged him. Both of them deployed their blades, careful not to hurt each other, and gave a battle cry.  
  
"You'll never win!" their opponent yelled as he stood to face them. Already he was weak, but he had one last card to play and he used it, even as their blades cut into his body. "Naya, receive your punishment now," he whispered as he fell.  
  
"What is he doing?" Kusangi wondered aloud as they landed. Naya beside him looked on curiously, wondering what he'd mean. Then all the color drained out of her face and she clutched at her chest in pain.  
  
"No! STOP!!" she screamed as she writhed on the ground. Kusanagi heard a crack and looked over to see Murakumo holding the nearly shattered remains of her third matama. The only thing that had saved it was his death, right before it entirely broke.  
  
"Naya, what's happening?!" he demanded as he tried to hold her still.  
  
"It hurts, it hurts," she whimpered.  
  
"Naya, what did he do?!"  
  
"MY SOUL!" she screamed, her voice echoing off the vastness of the space around them. "He broke my soul. I am aragami."  
  
"But you're human!" Kusanagi yelled, refusing to believe it. He went over to pick up the fragile blue seed and Naya let out another piercing scream as soon as he touched it.  
  
"Finish me! I'm begging you, please! Kill me!"  
  
"There has to be a way," he said desperately, kneeling down beside her.  
  
"Let her go, Kusanagi," Sakura muttered from her spot a few feet away. "She's caught between two worlds and its killing her anyway."  
  
"I thought you were dead," he snapped, ungratefully.  
  
"Not yet. It'll take a little more to kill me, but not much. Besides, I hurt to damned much to be dead. Soon though. Maybe I can redeem myself now."  
  
"Hurry up and tell me!" he said, noticing her voice growing faint.  
  
"Hurts too much to talk. Must heal seed."  
  
"HOW?!" he demanded as Naya convulsed and he was forced to hold her down.  
  
"By killing her."  
  
"NO!"  
  
"YES!!!" Naya screamed simultaneously with him.  
  
"Can be reborn. Must die but. reborn." Sakura went limp again, this time for good. Her breath left her body as peace descended on her.  
  
"What do you mean?!" he yelled, helpless for the first time in a long time.  
  
"KILL ME!" Naya screamed again. "Finish me, PLEASE!!" She made a slow grab for the matama but Kusanagi held it out of her reach.  
  
"I won't kill you! I'm going to save you!"  
  
"You're acting no better than him," she whispered as she convulsed again. It took all of his strength to hold her down. "Kill me, I'm begging you. Be my father and kill me."  
  
Kusanagi felt peace also descend on him. Knowing he had no other choice he set the seed down and raised his blade high. Naya opened her eyes and watched the blades descent. It struck her chest and she gasped, but the pain was no worse than what she was already feeling. Then it sought out and found her heart.  
  
"Thank you," she told him, using the last of her strength to reach up and touch his face. "Thank you daddy. I'll see you when I wake."  
  
She smiled, even as tears ran down his cheeks, and then she died. Blood pooled upon the cavern floor and he knelt in it, weeping for the things that would have been, that could have been. The things that had been heartlessly wrestled from him again. It all flashed through his mind as he realized that he'd lost her twice.  
  
~*~  
  
"Kusanagi?" Momiji exclaimed when she heard the car pull back up. She went sprinting out the door but stopped when he stepped out of the car. She looked into his eyes and he shook his head. Her face went pale and she closed her eyes, but nodded bravely. "And Sakura?" Again her husband shook his head.  
  
"So many lives lost for a hopeless cause," she said, letting her eyes spill over.  
  
"Naya!!" Shen and Aiko yelled as they came rushing down the stairs to see their older sister. Momiji immediately grabbed both of them and knelt down to take them in her arms. They struggled to get away, not understanding their mother's behavior.  
  
"Where's Naya? Didn't daddy bring her back?" Shen demanded.  
  
"Your daddy did bring her back, but." Momiji trailed off, trying to think of an easy way to tell them.  
  
"She's dead, Shen," Kusanagi told them quietly. "And so is Sakura."  
  
"But we already knew that," Aiko told him. "The bad man is dead also."  
  
"What?" Kusanagi demanded, looking into his daughter's catlike eyes. The same eyes that Naya had had. He could have sworn her eyes had been a normal blue the day before, and Shen's a normal green.  
  
"We felt her die. Mommy did too, but she didn't know it," Shen told him, glancing toward his big sister for confirmation. She nodded her answer.  
  
"How?"  
  
"Our souls," both children told him.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Momiji demanded, clutching at her lone matama. Shen just reached up and touched her hand.  
  
"Bring them inside," Aiko told him, acting ten times more mature than she should. "I'll set blankets out for them." Then she hurried to do just that. Kusanagi brought both women inside and laid them out so they could be cleaned up. Shen and Aiko stayed out of the room at their parents bidding.  
  
"Kusanagi, this wound is too big to have come from his blade," Momoji said as she cleaned the wound in Naya's chest, not needing to explain who "his" was.  
  
"No, it came from mine. I killed her, Momiji. She begged me to kill her and I couldn't refuse."  
  
"What happened to her?" Momiji asked calmly. She knew he wouldn't have killed her had something terrible not happened. Kusanagi merely pulled the shattered seed from his pocket and placed it on the table. She looked at him and her eyes showed their understanding. "Tell me how?"  
  
Kusanagi related the tale, leaving out none of the gory details. He even told how their daughter had begged for her life to end, and exactly what Sakura had said. They both puzzled over it until they heard the door open and their children come in. The grisly work was mostly done by then so they did not rebuke them.  
  
"Mom has something to tell you," Shen told him. Momiji's eyes flew to look at him, then back to her husband and back. "How did you--?"  
  
"Naya told us."  
  
"What?" Kusanagi wanted to know.  
  
"I'm going to have a baby," Momiji told him after a moment. "I didn't want to tell you until this was over."  
  
"Momiji," he gasped.  
  
"Its not going to be like us though," Aiko told them. "Naya said that it doesn't have a soul like ours."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Kusanagi finally demanded. Shen and Aiko looked at each other before shrugging. Then Shen pulled up his shirt to reveal a matama sitting on his chest, right over a patch of scar tissue.  
  
"You always wondered what the scars were from," Aiko told them. "Naya said that someone in the hospital cut off our souls before you saw us, and gave them to the bad man. She gave them back to us a little while ago."  
  
"And the baby-"  
  
Kusanagi smiled to himself and shook his head. "She knew. She knew it was going to happen. Who knows how, but she knew."  
  
"Why do you say that?" Momoji asked him.  
  
"She may not have known how she was going to die until it happened, but she was smiling when she died. She told me with her last breath, 'I'll see you when I wake'."  
  
"Oh." his wife gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "That means."  
  
"Baby's don't have souls until their born," Shen told her.  
  
"And you have Naya's soul right there." Aiko added.  
  
"Well," Kusanagi said, bowing to inevitable fate, "I guess her name is going to be Naya." Momiji smiled sadly and nodded.  
  
On the table, the blue seed winked in the light, but something had changed. No one noticed it but slowly the cracks started to heal themselves and had anyone looked hard enough, they would have seen the reflection of a baby's smile.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~  
  
Dream Keeper: Well, that sucked. I don't like the ending, but I swore to myself that I WOULD finish it. So here it is, months (years?) late.  
  
Christa: I QUIT! I'm never touching this one again so don't even ask! *glares at the fans*  
  
Dream Keeper: Anyway, there's food waiting up in the kitchen for us so we'd better go before the 'rents decide to delete this.  
  
Christa: FOOD!!!!!!!!!! FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD!!!!!  
  
Dream Keeper: Okay, calm down and finish!  
  
Christa: *sigh* Okay, hope you liked it. Please R&R which means read AND REVIEW!!!!! Thanx. Now lets go get FOOD!!!!!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~ 


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